The present invention relates generally to customized display articles, and, more particularly, to a computer-implemented system for interactively designing and producing advertising banners.
Designing and producing commercial artwork, such as advertising banners, has historically been a time consuming and labor intensive process. For instance, a customer would work with an artist or group of artists in an iterative process to design the artistic content for the banner. The customer might put forth various specifications as to what the artistic content should be or how it should appear on the banner. The artist would then interpret the specifications and create an original piece of artwork representing the desired content for the banner. Often the creation of the artwork would involve the aid of computer-implemented design tools. The customer would then examine the artwork and, if unsatisfied, request changes to the artwork. This cycle might be repeated until the artwork adequately reflects the customer's requirements.
Next, the customer would decide on the proper fabrication requirements necessary to produce the banner. For instance, the customer specifies a size and medium for the banner. The artist would then create a properly scaled representation of the artwork in accordance with the fabrication requirements, thereby creating an original custom banner.
Once an original banner was created, duplicate copies of the banner may need to be generated. Prior to generating replicas of the banner, the customer may desire to customize certain aspects of the banner. The conventional design process is not conducive to making such modifications to the design of the banner. Alternatively, the customer may desire to use the same original artwork on different banners.
For instance, a beer distributor prefers that each of its advertising banners display the same company logo. However, if the banners are for use at independently owned retailers, then the banner may also need to display the name of the particular retailer who is displaying the banner. In this case, the customized artwork, such as the company logo, could not be easily replicated for subsequent banners using the conventional design process. In other words, the conventional design process creates unnecessary expense for large commercial customers who desire large quantities of customized banners having similar logos or artwork displayed on each of the banners.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a computer-implemented system to facilitate interactively designing and producing customized advertising banners.